Before there were motorized vehicles, forest fires were able to burn almost
unchecked.
Citizens and firefighters would use hand held water extinguishers, rakes,
brooms, and other
hand tools to create fire breaks and stop fires. Horse drawn wagons could
carry a number of
extinguishers but were slow and unable to go off main roads.

Refilling hand held water extinguishers.

August 1907 photo from Onset bay of a Cape Cod
forest fire.

SOME
CAPE COD FOREST FIRE HISTORY

In 1780, an early morning lightning storm started a fire in the woods. Clouds of
dark smoke filled the sky to the west of Sandwich in what was called
"The Dark Day." It had been for generations, the practice to "fire the
woods"
each year as the Indians had done, usually in April, to burn off the grass and
seedlings. This practice kept wide stretches of the forest clear of
underbrush
but did not damage the large standing trees.

In 1887, a huge forest fire burned over 25,000 acres from the Pocasset
section of Bourne to Sandwich. This fire destroyed approximately 600
cord of stacked wood at the Sandwich Glass Company as well as several
stands of oak and pine ready for cutting. The Glass company was forced
to then purchase and burn coal in its furnaces at a substantial financial
cost. This, along with a labor union strike, ultimately contributed to the
demise of the Sandwich Glass Company, one of the Cape's largest industrial businesses between 1825 and 1894.

On May 30,1923 a fire began in the woods in Pocasset village. By the end of the
day, it
was thought that the fire was out. By morning however, it picked up again,
burning through
the day. Once again, it was believed that it was under control by
nightfall, only to flare up again
and again for 7 days. An area of approximately 25,000 acres, between Pocasset
village,
Sagamore, Sandwich, East Sandwich, and South Sandwich was left blackened.

The State Commissioner of Conservation stated that "something was radically
wrong" adding that
the fire could have been contained to about 1,000 acres if it had been properly
handled since
it was not even a "fire day." Following this fire, the state purchased
hundreds of acres of
burned over forest in Bourne and Sandwich and created the Shawme State Forest in
1923.
The name was changed in 1938 to the Shawme-Crowell State Forest, honoring
Lincoln
Crowell for his long dedication to the Cape's forests. Crowell was killed
in 1938 when the
patrol truck he was in was struck by a train in Brewster.

"A concerted national fire prevention program (dealing with wildland fires) did
not follow,
until two experiments in 1928.... The Cape Cod Forest Fire Prevention experiment
and the
Southern Forests Education campaign... The Cape Cod program involved 110,000
acres
of scrub oak and pitch pine. The experiment was intended to compare the
costs of
prevention and pre-suppression with those of suppression...." This
statement in "Fire
in America" by Stephen J. Pyne c.1982, demonstrates how serious the forest fire
situation on the Cape was at that time. The Smokey the Bear program grew
out of these
early fire prevention efforts.

Forest fires can be extremely dangerous, especially when fought by hand.
One of the worst
fires ever on Cape Cod struck on April 27, 1938. A number of fires were
burning on the
Cape and in Plymouth County, when another fire began in Sandwich Bourne
Deputy
Chief Gibbs took a crew of young men, volunteers, with him in to fight the fire
west of
what is now Route 130 in Sandwich. 40 mile per hour winds fanned the
flames and the
men were soon trapped by the fire. All received serious burns. Three
men, Thomas
Adams, age 43; Gordon King, age 34, and Ervin Draber, age 28 died that day
fighting
this forest fire. A memorial stands today near the site where they died.

The brush and
forest fire problem on Cape Cod and in the southeastern part of
Massachusetts was severe, particularly in the spring. Thousands
of acres of forest
were burned yearly. The 1920's and 1930's saw many major fires
which led to the need for
a better way of fighting them. As trucks became available and
reliable, the
concept of the brush breaker was born.

A bi-plane can
be seen against the plume of smoke at this Cape forest fire.
The plane may have been observing conditions from above.

The 1920's
brought attention to the forest fire problem at the state level.
Research into ways to prevent and combat fires, included manned
fire patrol trucks,
fire roads, and fire prevention measures.

Pine forests in
the spring are explosive fuel.

As fires
increase in size, the length of the side (flank) fire increases.
A sudden change in wind
speed or direction can turn low burning side fire into a
dangerous crowning headfire

Pine trees can
explode as a headfire rages through the forest, up hills and
across valleys.

Without a way to
get to these fires while they are still small, fires would grow
to thousands of
acres in a short time. Fires of huge magnitude are not
extinguishable... the just run out of
fuel or go out as weather conditions determine.

Fires threaten power lines, homes, barns, and
local villages. It was not unusual for fires to burns for days,
from one side of the Cape to the other.

The invention of the brush breaker enabled men
to quickly reach fires, either by fire access roads, or by
driving
cross country through brush and forested land as necessary to
reach and attack fires with water carried on the
brush breaker. Teams of brush breakers working together could
quickly surround and extinguish many fires
before the grew large.

Fast moving fires were very dangerous.

FIREFIGHTERS MEMORIAL

One of the
Cape's worst fires ever occurred on April 27, 1938 in the Town of
Sandwich.
A fire which started in the national guard camp at what would
become Otis, burned into
the Shawme Crowell State Forest. The 12 mile long by 5 mile wide
fire trapped and burned
several firemen. Three men, Thomas Adams, Ervin Draber, and Gordon King died from
burns.
Help came from several counties.

Memorial to Thomas Adams, Ervin A. Draber, and Gordon King.

The memorial is locate on Route 130 in Forestdale.

Smokey Bear for fire prevention.

Preventing Forest Fires - Tailgate of DEM District 7 Patrol truck.

Only You!

Smokey

PLYMOUTH FIRES

This map is on the wall in the
District 2 headquarters at Myles Standish State Forest.
It shows some of the major fires that have burned in the Plymouth / Carver area.

Some of the fires
in the Plymouth History:

Some of this information provided
by John Hedge, Plymouth FD Captain (Retired) who had researched area
news reports about some of the great Plymouth fires.

The Great Fire of 1900
September 12, 1900 - September 15, 1900
A fire started near Carver and burned to the shores of
Cape Cod Bay. Strong gusty winds, the remnants of the great
Galveston (Texas) Hurricane fanned the fire as it burned four miles
in 30 minutes at one point. The fire destroyed many structures
as well.

Spring 1937
A fire bug was blamed for a large number of fires in
Plymouth during the spring and summer of 1937. One fire burned about
300 acres from the Bourne town line to Herring pond.
On May 4, 1937 a fire started in the Pine Hills
near Mast Road. A sudden change in the wind caused the fire to
sweep across Sandwich Road. Two firefighters, James H. Devitt,
aged 20 and Herbert R. Benton, aged 38 were trapped on the
road and were killed. These are believed to be the first
firemen killed in Plymouth. There were many more men on that road at
that time who barely escaped, some of whom were badly burned.
While that fire was burning another fire began on
Island Pond Road, and yet another on Summer Street in Plymouth.
With these three large fires burning at the same time, help was
called from departments within a 20 mile radius. Over 700 men
fought the fires.
The following day, another fire began just north
of Ponds Road and burned to State Road. These four fires over
two days were more than usually experienced in five years. Other
fires were set, but controlled with less damage over the next few
days.

May 8, 1957
15,000 Acres burn in a massive forest fire that burned
from Cranberry Road in the Myles Standish forest in Carver to the
water in Manomet. The fire which began about 3:00 PM on Wednesday
had a 3 mile front within an hour. A brisk, strong
southwesterly wind drove the fire about 12 miles.
About 30 minutes before the fire began, a Plymouth
brush breaker had been sent to battle a fire in Mashpee on the Cape.
This breaker was recalled to fight the fire in the home town of
Plymouth. Apparatus responded to this fire from Framingham to
Provincetown according to reports, including apparatus from
Falmouth, Harwich, Truro, Onset and Bourne, as well as other
Plymouth County departments and all the State apparatus in
Southeastern Mass. Soldiers from Otis and prisoners from Plymouth
were put to work as were many local and state police officers.
Plymouth Fire Chief Everett B. Wood ordered the evacuation of more
than 150 people. Approximately 6 cottages were destroyed. Over
3,000 firefighters battled the fire it is estimated.

May 23, 1964 - Saturday
A large fire burned in the South Carver area.May 25, 1964 - Monday, Approx 1:00 PM
The fire tower observed a fire starting up in the
Farm-to-Market Road area in South Carver near where the fire burned
on the previous Saturday. Just three minutes later, another fire was
spotted in the Suther's Marsh Road area off Federal Furnace Road.
Eight breakers from Plymouth and Carver responded into the Suther's
Marsh Road fire. Other apparatus from Wareham responded into the
Myles Standish fire. The Suther's Marsh fire was controlled in two
hours, but the other fire continued to gain headway and was now much
larger. It moved eastward towards Charge Pond and Camp
Cachalot at Five Mile Pond and Little Long Pond. It jumped the
Agawam River and moved to White Island Pond. Chief Arthur Lamb
chose to take a stand at White Island Pond to block the north end of
the fire and at Shangri-La Shores near Glen Charlie Road to the
south. About 1,000 men battled the fire with winds gusting to 30 mph
and tinder dry conditions. About 20 cottages lost. About 5,500
acres burned.

May 15, 1971
Seven Plymouth firefighters were burned in a fire that
destroyed 165 acres when wind direction changes burned firefighters
on two brush breakers. The two damaged vehicles were a 1955 Dodge
Power Wagon and a 1968 International. The fire was on the east side
of Myles Standish in the Camp Squanto BSA campground. More
than 40 apparatus from Plymouth and Barnstable counties fought the
fire.

1991
About 1,200 acres were burned.

May 8, 1995
A fast moving fire whipped by 25 mph winds forced
hundreds of residents to flee a fire in the Captains Country and
Wind Shores neighborhoods about 1:30 PM quickly destroying 95 acres
and threatening more than a hundred homes in the Bourne Road area.
Mutual aid from 18 departments responded.